The trend in the computer industry has been toward client-server systems whereby a plurality of independent computers (clients) can connect to a remote server in order to obtain access to a host of applications, stored data, etc., thereby eliminating the need to store all applications at the independent computers. Most application developers create each client-server application anew, without building on any previous work. After development, the server applications are generally provided at the server, with concurrent uploading of corresponding client applications on the client systems. Such efforts consume a great amount of time and effort, some of which is repetitive from one application to another. Moreover, many functions which are desirably included as classes of operations for a given application are commonly duplicated in many, if not all, other resident applications. It would be desirable to provide base functionality for all applications to be developed for the client-server environment.
It is therefore an objective of the present invention to provide a framework for facilitating development and enhancement of client-server applications.
It is another objective of the invention that the framework allow for development and enhancement of client-server applications without the need for re-programming the framework.
It is yet another objective of the invention to provide the foregoing framework with base classes to use for implementing specific functions of new applications without the need for coding in new classes for those functions.